Republic of Hatay
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Motto : peace at home, peace in the world ( Turkish "Peace at home, peace in the world" ) |
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The Hatay Republic ( Turkish Hatay Devleti , literally Hatay State ) was a state that formally existed from September 7, 1938 to June 29, 1939. It was a transitional construct that transferred the former Sanjak Alexandrette from French mandate rule to a province in Turkey as part of the League of Nations mandate for Syria and Lebanon .
This was preceded by a two-decade struggle for the region, during which there were violent clashes between various ethnic groups in the Sanjak and the Mandate troops. In 1936 the dispute over the region led to the diplomatic Alexandretta crisis in the League of Nations . France and the United Kingdom ultimately agreed to transfer ownership of the sanjak to Turkey in order to ensure Turkey's neutrality in the looming conflict with Germany .
On June 29, 1939, the Hatay Republic was annexed to Turkey and - supplemented by the Turkish districts Erzin, Dörtyol and Hassa - formed into the Turkish province of Hatay .
prehistory
The collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the division into mandate areas
The conflict over the Alexandretta region was a result of the far-reaching political upheavals that took place in the Middle East after the end of the First World War . The Ottoman Empire, which was on the losing side of this war, had already been secretly divided into spheres of interest by France and Great Britain in the Sykes-Picot Agreement in 1916 . At the Sanremo Conference in April 1920, following this division, three League of Nations mandates were created on the grounds of supporting the newly created successor states of the Ottoman Empire on their way to national independence. One of these mandates passed into the responsibility of France as the “League of Nations Mandate for Syria and Lebanon ”, whereby the former Sanjak Alexandrette was included in the mandate area. The Ottoman Empire also agreed to this regulation in the Treaty of Sèvres in the summer of 1920.
The Second World War is casting its shadow
France was faced with a complicated political situation on the Alexandretta issue. On the one hand there was the geostrategic interest in owning the port of Alexandretta, one of the few efficient ports on the south coast of Asia Minor . The trading city of Aleppo , entrusted to the mandate, was traditionally heavily dependent on this port and the economic success ensured French investments in Syria. Furthermore, the population of the former sanjak was clearly not a majority Turkish during the 1920s. Although these factors would have spoken in favor of France's unyielding course towards Turkey, the growing Turkish influence in the former Sanjak was accepted by the French mandate policy until it was hardly reversible. The reason for France's indulgent stance was French politicians' fear that Turkey might again take the German side in a renewed conflict between France and Germany, as in the First World War.
France's divide-et-impera policy
The French invasion was not welcomed either north or south of the new Syrian-Turkish border. In Alexandretta he immediately provoked a revolt against the French armed forces. There were several uprisings between 1918 and 1921. The Turkish Kemalists , who were allied with the Syrians at the time, supported the resistance as best they could.
France, whose military resources were limited after the costly World War, switched to a divide-et-impera policy : within Syria, national resistance was weakened by the occupation of Damascus and the ousting of King Faisal on July 25, 1920. In terms of foreign policy, France reached an agreement with Turkey in the agreement of October 20, 1921 in Ankara, which led to the cessation of military support for the Syrian rebels and ended the Franco-Turkish hostilities. In return, France granted Turkey, among other things, certain special rights in Hatay. Within a short time France was able to successfully play off the formerly allied forces against each other. In retrospect, however, the foundation stone for years of struggle for influence in Hatay was laid and a process was set in motion that was to experience increasing momentum in the following two decades.
The Turkification Policy of the 1920s and 30s
As early as 1921, Turkey had begun to use its new prerogatives for a Turkification policy in the Alexandretta region and to specifically influence the multiethnic society there. Turkey made no secret of its goal to win back the region from the start. In a speech in 1923 Ataturk complained that the Sanjak Alexandrette had been "part of the Turkish homeland for four centuries" and was now "in the hands of the enemy".
The educational system was clearly geared towards Turkish needs, although the Turkish native speakers formed a minority in the Sanjak in the 1920s. This was expressed, for example, in the preference given to Turkish students in the awarding of scholarships, the distribution of the budget in favor of Turkish-language teaching and better educational offers in Turkish up to the targeted blockade of Arabic school-leaving qualifications.
The administration, which had essentially retained the old Ottoman officials, was also dominated by the Turks and the chances for Arabs of a post were significantly worse than those of a Turk. France did not encourage this but made no effort to counter it. Likewise, Turks were over-represented in the Darak, a paramilitary police unit with far-reaching powers, and to a lesser extent in the normal police force ( Šurta ). On the other hand, France played a very active role in modifying the borders of the administrative area. These were changed several times in the course of the 1920s so that the population had a numerically increasing proportion of Turks.
Turkish was also introduced as an official language with equal rights alongside Arabic and French .
The role of the non-Turkish population
The division of the population of the former Sanjak into ethnic and / or religious groups suggests a more precise picture than can actually be given. Sometimes the dividing lines between the groups are blurred, alternative classifications would be possible and the figures from the 1920s and 1930s are extremely imprecise according to today's criteria.
In 1936 the population was 219,000 and, according to official French statistics, consisted of: 38.9% Turks , 28% Alawite Arabs , 10% Sunni Arabs, 8.2% Christian Arabs , 11.4% Armenians . Turkey, however, claimed that 80% of the region was inhabited by Turks.
The ethnic groups were politically and socially somewhat homogeneous, but in some cases also fragmented. For example, there was a communist and a national-socialist Armenian movement.
Ethnically independent positions
The rich landowners, administrators and traders across the ethnic groups mainly pursued their own economic goals and did not attach particular importance to either Turkish or Arab nationalism .
The older generation, also on the Arab side, felt nostalgic for Turkey and saw the Alexandretta question as a kind of quarrel among brothers, not among enemies.
On the other hand, there was a movement mainly supported by the younger population that advocated nationalism, with the Turks in favor of the Kemalist idea and the Armenians and Arabs in favor of the national Syrian or even pan-Arabian idea.
Armenians
Within the Armenian bloc, a majority sided with the nationalist Arabs, as the Armenians had an extremely bad relationship with the Turks due to the genocide of the Armenians during the First World War.
Arabs
The group of nationalist Arabs was mainly represented by the Uṣba movement Zaki al-Arsuzis , which advocated a pan-Arab ideology and opposed both the French mandate and the Turkish claims.
In the Arab- Muslim group there was a change from the initial advocacy of autonomy to national Syrian ideas, as the largely anti or areligious Kemalist movement was increasingly viewed as a danger to Islam.
The Arab Christians, who were mainly traders, on the other hand, did not demand any change in the overall situation, since they saw their interests most likely guaranteed by the mandate power of France.
Alawites
The Alawites played more of a marginalized group. They advocated the establishment of autonomy because they saw in it a possibility to prevent a minority existence in a Syrian state as a whole.
The Alexandretta crisis of 1936/37
Bloody clashes between Turks and Arabs had already announced a worsening of the situation in 1934. Nevertheless, the discussion about the future of the region around Alexandretta remained a problem that received little attention internationally and even in French political circles. This changed in 1936. Turkey repeatedly appeared that year as the advocate of the alleged Turkish majority in the Alexandretta region during the Syrian-French negotiations for an independence treaty. These negotiations nevertheless led to the signing of a “friendship and alliance treaty” between Syria and its mandate on September 9, 1936.
The demands on the part of Turkey for a separation of the region from Syria and the conversion into a Turkish-French protectorate became louder and finally brought before the League of Nations , which - also under pressure from Great Britain - led to negotiations and finally to the “Statute du Sandjak ”and the“ Loi fundamentale du Sandjak ”. These made the sanjak Alexandrette a "entité distincte", which was autonomous in all internal affairs and free from the military. The background to this was the aforementioned concern of the French and British that Turkey might take sides with the German Reich in a renewed war between the European powers . As expected, Germany then also took a strictly Turkish position.
During the implementation of these resolutions, France and Turkey attempted to influence them, with the aim of transforming the Turkish minority in the region into a majority in the regional parliament. It turned out, however, that such a majority could not be achieved through an electoral system that favored the Turks, nor through pressure on the population. In fact, Turkey could only count on around 35% of the vote.
The realization that under pressure from Turkey France would cut off the sanjak at any cost led to protests by the non-Turkish population and ethnic tensions that erupted into violent clashes. The French behavior was also criticized as “undignified” in diplomatic circles.
Elections to the regional parliament in 1938
The elections to the regional parliament took place on July 22, 1938 and were accompanied by massive electoral influence . They were preceded by weeks of intense repression and violent clashes between Turks and Arabs in the Sanjak, some of which were hotly shot.
The League of Nations Commission, which was severely understaffed with only around 60 people and which should have carried out and monitored the upcoming elections , declared its withdrawal from the Sanjak on June 20, 1938 due to massive reprisals by the paramilitary Darak. The special tribunal of the League of Nations, which could not counter the “illegal and brutal” approach, followed suit. Although a League of Nations commission was sent again for a short time, France and Turkey agreed on July 4, 1938 to control the elections directly.
The state of siege was declared on June 3, 1938 . The violent clashes intensified during the month. Arab nationalist leaders were arrested, the inner-Syrian border was closed to Arabs and Armenians who had emigrated, while thousands of Turks were brought to the Sanjak to vote.
Already in the run-up to the elections, Major Collet, who had a Turkish attitude and who had temporarily replaced the pro-Syrian delegate Garreau as administrator of the region, had assured the Turks that he would help them to obtain 22 of the 40 parliamentary seats. Garreau had previously admitted to English diplomats that French representatives in Geneva had given their Turkish colleagues corresponding assurances.
On August 2, 1938, the result was announced, which awarded the Turkish parliamentary group 66% of the vote and thus exactly the 22 seats guaranteed by Collet.
The 57,008 registered voters belonged to the following "ethnic groups" (which, according to the definition at the time, could also be derived from a certain religious affiliation):
- Sunni Turks: 35,847
- Alawites and Nusairians : 11,319
- Armenians: 5,504
- Orthodox Christians : 2,098
- Arabs: 1,845
- Others: 395
The forty MPs, elected by indirect election, belonged to these groups:
- 22 Sunni Turks
- 9 Alawites and Nusairians
- 5 Armenians
- 2 Orthodox Christians
- 2 arabs
independence
First parliamentary decisions
The newly elected parliament met on September 2, 1938. Abd al-Ghani Turkman was elected President of Parliament. In his address, he expressed his joy that the country had now been freed from its 18 years of "bondage". As president was Tayfur Sökmen chosen as Prime Minister Abdurrahman Melek . At the suggestion of MP Subhi Barakat, the young state was called "Hatay". The name goes back to the publicist İsmail Müştak Mayakon, who tried to prove that the Turks were descended from the Hittites during the 1930s .
Because of its large Turkish population, Antakya became the capital of Hatay, a flag very similar to the Turkish one was designated as the state flag. In addition, the assembly decided to adopt a number of Turkish laws and to have Turkish officials come to establish a state administration and to draw up the financial budget.
Further Turkification
The Turkification process accelerated after the declaration of independence. School lessons were only allowed in Turkish and the Turkish curriculum should be followed. Arab officials have been dismissed from their posts. The French Supreme Court justices were replaced by Turkish ones. In addition, clergymen were banned from wearing the traditional tarboosh , following the strict secularism of Turkey .
The connection to Turkey was prepared economically, for example at the beginning of November 1938 the customs barriers fell. On February 17, 1939, the parliament adopted the full Turkish legislation, on March 14 the Turkish lira as currency , and in the following days the Turkish post, telegraph and customs fees.
Connection to Turkey
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In the course of the efforts of Turkey and the Turkish-dominated Parliament of Hatay to join Hatay to Turkey, Turkey negotiated a corresponding treaty with France in 1939. In it, Turkey assured, among other things, that it would not make any claims on other Syrian territories and that it would respect the Syrian borders. The agreement was signed on June 23, 1939.
On June 28th, the last session of Hatay's parliament decided to annex Hatay to Turkey. The Turkish parliament, for its part, approved this request on July 7, 1939, after which Hatay became part of the Turkish Republic. The French troops finally withdrew from Hatay on July 23.
Syria's reactions
Many Arab and Armenian families had emigrated from Hatay as early as July 1939. In total, Syria took in around 50,000 refugees, including 22,000 Armenians, 12,000 Sunni Arabs, 10,000 Alawis and 5,000 Orthodox Christians. Above all, Arab farmers remained who could not or would not give up their land.
The final loss of Hatay led to an open government crisis in Damascus, during which the Syrian President Hashim Chalid al-Atassi resigned on July 8, 1939 and the French High Commissioner suspended the constitution.
The agreement between France as the mandate power and Turkey as the legal successor to rule over Hatay was submitted to the League of Nations on August 18, 1939 and is - regardless of how it came about - valid under international law. The official position of Syria on the other hand is up to the present (status 2/2011) that the spin-off of Hatay was illegal and the area is still part of Syria today.
Hatay in the film
In the adventure film Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade from 1989, Hatay is one of the main locations. Apart from the identical names and locations, the country shown in the film has nothing to do with historic Hatay. The flag was invented, as was the form of government, a monarchy with a sultan at its head. The ruins shown towards the end of the film are actually in the ancient rock city of Petra in Jordan .
literature
- Dalal Arsuzi-Elamir: Arab Nationalism in Syria. Zakī al-Arsūzī and the Arab national movement on the periphery of Alexandretta / Antakaya 1930–1938. (= Studies on the Contemporary History of the Middle East and North Africa , Volume 9), Münster 2003, ISBN 3-8258-5917-7 .
- Stephen Hemsley Longrigg: Syria and Lebanon under French Mandate. London / New York 1969
- Abdurrahman Melek: Hatay Nasıl Kurtuldu (1966) - How Hatay was liberated. Ankara 1991, ISBN 975-16-0342-0 full text online (Turkish)
- Tayfur Sökmen: Hatay'ın kurtuluşu İçin Harcanan Çabalar (1978) - Efforts for the liberation of Hatay. Ankara 1992, ISBN 975-16-0499-0 .
Web links
- History of Hatay
- History of the Republic of Hatay (Turkish)
- Le sandjak d'Alexandrette - un conflit de nationalités au proche-orient (French)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Arsuzi-Elamir 2003: p. 82
- ↑ Arsuzi-Elamir 2003: p. 200
- ↑ a b Arsuzi-Elamir 2003: p. 204
- ↑ Arsuzi-Elamir 2003: p. 37
- ↑ Arsuzi-Elamir 2003: pp. 95f.
- ↑ Arsuzi-Elamir 2003: p. 100
- ↑ Arsuzi-Elamir 2003: p. 98
- ↑ Arsuzi-Elamir 2003: p. 87
- ↑ Arsuzi-Elamir 2003: p. 25
- ↑ a b c d Arsuzi-Elamir 2003: p. 108
- ↑ Arsuzi-Elamir 2003: p. 210
- ↑ Arsuzi-Elamir 2003: p. 109
- ↑ a b Arsuzi-Elamir 2003: p. 111
- ↑ Arsuzi-Elamir 2003: p. 78
- ↑ Arsuzi-Elamir 2003: p. 144
- ↑ Arsuzi-Elamir 2003: p. 156
- ↑ Arsuzi-Elamir 2003: p. 79
- ↑ Arsuzi-Elamir 2003: p. 157
- ↑ Arsuzi-Elamir 2003: p. 197
- ↑ a b Arsuzi-Elamir 2003: p. 168
- ↑ a b c Arsuzi-Elamir 2003: p. 186
- ↑ Arsuzi-Elamir 2003: p. 178
- ↑ Arsuzi-Elamir 2003: p. 182
- ↑ Arsuzi-Elamir 2003: p. 185
- ↑ a b Arsuzi-Elamir 2003: p. 179
- ^ Foreign Office, London, 371/21911, Aleppo, May 17, 1938
- ^ Kreiser, Klaus: Small Turkey Lexicon. Munich 1992, sv Hatay
- ↑ a b Arsuzi-Elamir 2003: p. 187
- ↑ Arsuzi-Elamir 2003: p. 189
- ↑ a b c Arsuzi-Elamir 2003: p. 190
- ↑ a b Arsuzi-Elamir 2003: p. 191
Coordinates: 36 ° 26 ' N , 36 ° 10' E